


a reason for prettiness

by fishlette



Series: meliglōssos [3]
Category: Bright (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-05-28 16:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15053720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishlette/pseuds/fishlette
Summary: What do you get for a girl who owns her own flower shop?—Writer's block collection.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of non-canon compliant/made up Elf TraditionsTM.

_Are you free this weekend?_ Her text wakes him from the midafternoon daze. A single sentence followed by a string of eyeball emojis. Kandomere coughs to cover a chuckle, earning him a kick from his partner under the conference table. He kicks back with his heel, Montehugh grunts.

Kandomere looks up casually, scanning the room for nosy colleagues before he replies. _Always for you querida. Why?_

Her reply is instant. _Nothing special, just wanted to double check. Keep your schedule clear for me pretty please?_ Three kissy face emojis. He smiles at his phone indulgently, half considering sending her back an emoji himself. _Might give her a heart attack._ He shakes his head.

“Stop that.” Montehugh flicks a paperclip at him. “You’re giving me cavities.”

Kandomere sends the paperclip back, hitting him square in between the eyes. “Send me your dental bill.”

He swings by her shop after work even though she doesn’t close for another hour, picking up her coffee on the way. Caramel macchiato with an extra shot of vanilla, too sweet he tells her whenever she offers him a sip. Lie. He sneaks one before entering the shop.

“I’ll be with you in a minute.” She calls from her perch on top of the step ladder, stretching high to hang a heavy basket of pansies by the window. She’s overbalanced, Kandomere can see the ladder teetering dangerously. He catches her before she can hit the ground, one arm around her shoulders and the other hooked under her knees, but the coffee and flowers are unsalvageable.

“I could only save one mi amor.” He says, when she sighs a long suffering sigh into his collar, and laughs when she rumbles, “Should’ve picked the flowers.”

She shoves a broom at him when he sets her down on her feet, sidestepping his embrace. “No kisses until you’re done.” His little human singsongs. Kandomere wonders what his mother would say if she saw him bend to the wishes of this slip of a human. His mother would like his pretty flower shop girl, he thinks. _She would make me clean up too._ Kandomere groans inwardly.

“So this weekend,” he says, when she’s finally done and locking up for the night. They’re another hour behind schedule because of the teenaged orc boy who burst in last minute looking for a corsage for his prom date. _Be nice,_ his human told him, _he’s just a boy._ So Kandomere waited patiently and only glared once.

“You only really need to be free on Saturday.” She says twirling the ends of her hair absentmindedly. He grabs her hand to still her fingers. “But it’d be nice if you could spare the whole weekend for me.” She bats her eyelashes at him. _Vixen._

“And what’s so special about Saturday?” He asks, lacing their fingers together for the short walk to his car.

“My birthday’s on Saturday.” She says casually. “I thought we could do something nice together. Maybe go to the beach.”

Kandomere stops in his tracks, halting her steps too with their joined hands. “Why didn’t you tell me your birthday was coming up?”

She blinks up at him. “I just did.”

They stare at each other in silence and then Kandomere pinches his brow. “You humans are truly maddening sometimes.”

“I’ll tell Monty you said that.”

She doesn’t because Montehugh doesn’t lecture him at all the next morning. But he wasn’t really paying attention to anything Montehugh said anyway. Less than a week until his girl’s birthday and he was caught wholly unprepared.

“Boss!” A heavy binder slams down in front of him. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes.” Montehugh grouses, raising his eyebrow. “What’s up with you?”

Kandomere clears his throat. “What kind of birthday present do you get for a girl who owns her own flower shop?”

Montehugh stares, incredulous. “Oh Boss.”

Jewellery is unacceptable, Montehugh tells him. _You’ve been dating for like 6 months Boss, your fancy schmancy elf stuff’s gonna scare her off._

“Trust me.” Montehugh says. Fine then. No jewellery.

“What does she like?” Montehugh asks, he’s turned the conference table into some sort of mood board. _My ex used to do this,_ he’d said, _it’s surprisingly helpful._

“Flowers, cute animals, terrible movies.”

“There you go cute animals! Get her a puppy!”

“A necklace is too much but a puppy isn’t?”

“Oh yeah. My bad.”

Back to the drawing board.

According to tradition he should be getting her a bouquet of peonies and rosebuds. _For devotion,_ he remembers abuela telling him, _when you spend your beloved’s first birthday together._ But he’s not traditional at all and his girl owns her own goddamned flower shop. Damn it.

“You should just ask her.” Montehugh says around a bite of jelly donut.

“I’m not going to ask her that would ruin the surprise.”

“But what if she hates your surprise?”

Kandomere glares at his partner.

The days trickle by until he has one left. _Just get her the damned necklace,_ Montehugh told him Thursday night, (Friday morning really), when he’d woken up at 3am to text his partner a possible gift idea. He contemplates asking his mother for advice but thinks better of it. She would never leave him alone if she found out he was dating again. Kandomere massages his temples against the oncoming headache. He’ll have to ask his human then.

“You’re stressed.” She says, when he picks her up from work on Friday night. His pretty flower shop girl leans into him, taking his hand in hers and pressing a kiss into his palm. He melts at her touch. “Better?”

“Thank you querida.” He says and then takes a breath before _making a fool of himself._ “What would you like for your birthday?”

She looks at him for a moment, silent, and he’s sure she’s disappointed in him. And then she takes his face her hands and plants a pink lip glossed smooch on the tip of his nose.

“Silly elf man.” She smiles, sweet and pretty under the hazy street lamps. “All I want is you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chronology? i don't know her.

He only realises that he’s picked up one of his girlfriend’s poorer habits after chewing right through Montehugh’s favourite pen, bitter ink and plastic shrapnel flying across the table in one absentminded  _crunch._  The crossword puzzle he’d been working on is absolutely annihilated, though Kandomere himself mysteriously escapes the explosion.

There are bits of pen speared on his teeth.

“Dude!” Montehugh looks flabbergasted, gesturing vaguely at him and then the ink dripping off his bearded chin. “What the  _fuck?”_

Kandomere checks to see they’re alone in the break room.

“No one’s going to believe you.”

Later, after he rinses out his mouth and bribes his way back into Montehugh’s good graces (two new stainless steel pens and a pastry of his choice from the fancy tea shop down the street), he rolls that word around in his head.  _Girlfriend,_  it’s strangely foreign even in the privacy of his own mind. Especially in the privacy of his mind.

He’s never used it before her, never thought he’d use it in his life really. His other partners had been just fine with ambiguous designations or none at all. But then one day she’d jokingly called him her ‘elf sugar daddy’ and  _that_  was just wrong so they settle on boyfriend and girlfriend and she laughed so hard she almost vomited on his shoes.

He doesn’t use it as much as she does, preferring to make no comment on his personal life to anyone other than Montehugh, but the satisfaction he feels when she refers to him as her boyfriend is undeniable. Kandomere discovered that early on when she used him to fend off the _‘creepy guy that comes in with his mom to buy mulch’._

“I don’t think my boyfriend would like that.” She’d said when _‘the creep’_ asked for her phone number, rounding the counter to hook her arm through his as he walked through the door. “Play along.” She hissed under her breath so he did, showing the squirrelly looking human all of his teeth.

And after, she’d pecked his cheek fondly and called him a _‘good boy’_ and he retaliated by tossing her over his shoulder as they walked to his car. He’d felt strangely pleasant for the rest of the week, even the chief commented on his curiously good mood.

If only his mother could see him now. Kandomere remembers being a young ungrateful whelp cringing away from what he deemed was his parents’  _flamboyant_   _displays of affection._

_“Just you wait mijo.” Mama had said, pinching his ear. “This will be you some day.”_

_Not quite mama,_  he thinks to himself,  _not yet at least._  But he was getting close, because his little human girlfriend is positively shameless and he hadn’t even realised how many of her manners he’d been adopting. (She talks in her sleep too, he certainly hoped _that_ wasn’t contagious.)

He missed her. Their team’s been in New York for a little over a month now for some supremely brainless administrative reason that he hasn’t bothered to keep up with and the three hour time difference was thoroughly frustrating. He’s not sure how people maintain long distance relationships. Kandomere imagines having a long distance relationship with his human. Imagines not being able to see her on lunch breaks or spend weekends curled up on the sofa together. Not waking up with her in his arms. _How terrible._

“You are such a brat.” She laughs when he tells her this _(what he says is: ‘what’s the point if you’re not physically together?” Not: ‘I can’t stand being so far from you.’)_ after they finally manage to coordinate a time for Skype. His mother would probably agree with her.

It’s five in the morning in L.A. when they get the okay to pack up so he decides to surprise her rather than wake her with a text. A good choice, Kandomere thinks when their plane gets delayed until late in the evening. He gets Montehugh to drop him off at her apartment. It’s late, early, somewhere in between, not a good time to drive into Elf Town anyway. And besides,  _he missed her._

Kandomere lets himself into his pretty flower shop girl’s apartment, silently so as not to wake her but he needn’t have bothered.

She’s not home.

It’s eerily quiet, no rustling of bed clothes, no sound of her breathing, even her scent is faint. The window in her bedroom is open in a slight crack when he goes to check it. She must have left it open that morning and not come home all day.

He doesn’t feel so relaxed anymore. The muscles in his neck pull tight as Kandomere patrols the tiny apartment. She hadn’t mentioned anything when they spoke the night before. Nothing about staying with friends or visiting family and as scatterbrained as his little human could be sometimes she would never leave the window open if she hadn’t intended on coming home straight from work. So where could she be?

He’s about to call her when the front door opens and his girl spills in on unsteady feet. She’s carrying her high heeled shoes in one hand and dragging her work bag along the floor with the other. His human looks exhausted, hair falling out of the neatly braided halo that she liked to wear it in when she worked weddings. And she definitely must be if she hasn’t noticed him standing right behind her.

A frustrated little kitten noise escapes her throat as she struggles to latch the security chain. Kandomere steps forward, snaking an arm around her waist to balance her.

“Oh!” She spins around so quick she almost falls over, alarmed expression giving way to a delighted grin when she recognizes him. “You’re back!” His pretty flower shop girl exclaims, throwing her arms around his neck excitedly. He can smell her work day on her, light powdery florals, champagne, and expensive congac. An elf wedding then.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back today? How was your flight? Have you eaten yet?” She’s talking a mile a minute between pressing little kisses along his jaw. It’s so charmingly distracting he almost doesn’t catch the alien scent of another elf on her. Mild, a fleeting touch of it but it’s coming from her throat. Kandomere brushes his human’s stray curls aside and sees five long scratches circling her neck. Her hands fly up to cover them but he catches her wrists. They’re razor thin and bright red, like claw marks. He can feel his hackles rise.

“What are these?” He asks through gritted teeth.

“Kandomere,” She sighs.

“Please querida.” He crowds her up against the door so she can’t look away, using his bulk to restrain her. “I need you to tell me.”

She holds his stare for a moment before giving in, blowing at a stray curl with exasperation. (Her version of rolling her eyes he’s learned. His human does it too often when she’s annoyed with him.)

“It was just a drunk groomsmen being dumb. Don’t worry about it okay?” She lowers her arms, using the wrists that he’s still gripping to guide his hands to her hips.  _Clever girl,_  but he won’t be distracted.

“Did you catch his name?”

“Really? It’s not a big deal. I can handle drunk guys I’ve done it before.” She means it to be reassuring but the thought makes Kandomere’s stomach churn. His girl only just clears the average height for a human woman even in high heels, how could she possibly fight off a drunken elf twice her size?

He traces the angry raised lines on her neck. He hadn’t broken the skin, this faceless foe of his, but the way his girl winces tells him exactly how painful they are.

“If it makes you feel better I kicked him really hard in the crotch.” She says seriously, pulling his face down to hers so she can brush his nose with hers. It does a little. Kandomere imagines his little human girlfriend taking down this beast in one blow.

“With your heels?” He asks.

“Of course.” She says, lifting her shoe to reveal one heel snapped in half. He huffs a chuckle.

“Good.”

Kandomere knows exactly why the elf singled her out for harassment, fingers lingering on the one scratch that ran straight through his bite mark. This one he left before going to New York, mostly healed and undetectable to the human eye. He’d done it on a whim when she’d mentioned she’d be working with elves some time that month. To stake his claim so to speak, and maybe he did want to show off just a little. Of course some two-bit drunk would take it as a challenge.

He’ll have to take a detour to the wedding venue tomorrow, he thinks, plotting his hunting trip in his head. This elf wanted a fight and Kandomere was more than happy to give it to him.

He lets his pretty flower shop girl command his attention again when she drapes herself on him like a lazy kitten.

“Can we go to bed now?” She mumbles, ghosting her lips over the corner of his mouth.  _Tease._  “It has been a  _day._  For both of us I think.” She pinches his chin. “Monty texted me that you tore open his pen with your teeth?”

_God damn it Montehugh._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [anon](http://rcsehips.tumblr.com/post/176108202781) wanted to see how they first met.
> 
>  
> 
> [ _send me a prompt_ ](http://rcsehips.tumblr.com/ask)

Montehugh drags him into this as Montehugh drags him into all the ordeals in his life, at 8 o'clock on a Wednesday morning, pre-coffee. The sun is already high in the sky, bright and hot on his face. Kandomere’s eyes sting from the light.

“Just stay in the car Boss,” Montehugh says. “I’m only gonna be a minute.”

Of course he doesn’t stay in the car.  _A minute,_  to Montehugh can last anywhere between an actual minute to at least fifteen when he’s unsupervised. So he follows his partner into the little flower shop hidden away in the human shopping district that he usually avoided like the plague. And it is without a doubt the dumbest decision he’s ever made in his life.

The shop keeper turns to greet them with a beaming smile and promptly falls off the step ladder she’d been standing on. Kandomere acts on instinct, darting forward to catch her. She fits in his arms like they’re perfect complimentary Tetris blocks (he’s played the game exactly once and swore off ever playing again after it ate 5 hours of his time). The little human blinks up at him, cheeks flushed and he can’t help but stare. She’s probably the prettiest human he’s ever seen, not that he’s ever paid enough attention to humans to warrant such an opinion but still. She opens her mouth to say something but he doesn’t hear it because there’s a sudden heavy pressure on his head. And the next thing he knows he’s on his back on the floor with the pretty human sprawled on top of him.

“Oh shoot.” She says, face so close to his he can feel her breath on his lips, sweet and warm. “At least you’re not bleeding.” Kandomere sucks in a breath as she cards one hand through his hair and her scent fills his lungs. She smells like the summer sun.

“The pot’s broken,” She says. “And you have uh…”

There’s dirt in his hair, he can feel it.

Montehugh has the good sense not to mention any of it for a week. But they’re back again on the following Wednesday.

“Stay in the car Boss.” His partner says as he unbuckles his seat belt. “I’ll be quick I promise.”

Of course he doesn’t stay in the car. Kandomere’s been thinking of the pretty flower shop girl all week. Her scent still lingers on the tie hanging in the back of his closet but it’s faint now. It’s bothered him for days, the slowly fading fragrance, all he wanted was another whiff. His partner doesn’t say a word when Kandomere exits the car too but he does choke down a cough. Kandomere ignores him.

She greets them from behind the counter this time, elbow deep in a glass terrarium full of cacti. Montehugh saunters up to her, grabbing the edges of the counter to lean over the little human.

“You got my order?”

“Yes sir!” She chirps. “It’s in the greenhouse, help yourself.”

He walks into the back like he owns the place and for some reason that annoys Kandomere to no end.

“Ow.”

He looks over to see the pretty human behind the counter blowing on her finger.

“Should’ve worn gloves.” She mutters under her breath. Kandomere can smell her blood in the air. Sea salt and iron and something sweet he can’t quite make out. He’s beside her before he even knows what he’s doing, taking her hand both of his. It’s small, he could probably fit both her wrists in his one hand at once. He examines the thorn that’s piercing through her skin, turning to face her when he hears a hitch in her breath. Their noses brush against each other, her scent filters into his lungs again. Kandomere takes a deep breath.

“Hi.” She says looking up at him through long dark lashes.

It takes all of his control not to just kiss her then.

“Told you I was gonna be quick.” Montehugh comes back pushing a little wheelbarrow. They spring apart before he can see them. “Let’s bounce.”

Kandomere nods at the pretty flower shop girl before heading out the door. His face feels warm for the rest of the day.

They come back again the next week and the week after that because Montehugh’s picked up gardening from some guy he was trying to impress. Kandomere vaguely recalls hearing him say something about his newest love interest being an orc. His partner was a strange fellow for sure.

So Montehugh invests his paycheque in gardening supplies and Kandomere spends his time in the shop watching the pretty human. She talks to him like they’re old friends, brushing against him casually when she walks by.

She brings a stool in for him after he joins Montehugh for the second time. “So you don’t have to stand and wait.” She leans in close to whisper to him, using his shoulder to pull herself level with his ear. “Monty can take a while sometimes.” One of her glossy curls brushes against his cheek. It makes his stomach flip like an Olympic gymnast and for a second he thinks he’s going to be sick.

The girl behind the counter likes to talk with her hands, fidgeting constantly with anything and everything she can get her nimble little fingers on.  _Touch me,_  Kandomere thinks, then quashes down on the thought until it’s nothing but a speck, a dust mote. And then the charming little human smiles at him from behind a sprig of violet asters and he can’t think at all.

She’s wearing a pale yellow sundress, the ruffled hem brushes against her legs distractingly as she moves around the shop, dodging vines and thorns. Kandomere looks away, coughing to clear his throat of the curious tickle that’s trying to crawl up his neck.

“…that’s why we’re closing early tomorrow.” The pretty flower shop girl chatters away while she sweeps the wooden floor. She looks up when he’s been silent for too long, setting her broom aside and sidling up to him like a cottontail bunny. “Are you okay?” She’s standing too close, skimming Kandomere’s temples with her fingertips.  _Yes,_  he wants to say but his voice is caught on something strange, he’s never felt so out of his depth as he does around this human girl. She presses the back of her hand to Kandomere’s forehead, it’s cool and soft. He leans in.

“You don’t feel too warm.” She says tapping a finger against her chin. “Do elves even get sick?”

“This one doesn’t.” Montehugh calls out from the greenhouse. “Not that I’ve seen anyway.” He crosses the room with a bag of mulch on his shoulder. “Last one.” He says, blowing the little human a kiss. “Thanks Plant Mom!”

She makes a catching motion, closing her hand around empty air, and presses it to her heart. “You’re welcome Monty.” She says with a wink.

Kandomere watches, a little stitch of irritation jabbing at the base of his skull.

“Let’s go Boss!” His partner calls cheerfully from the door.

They pile into the car and Montehugh drives them right into the afternoon traffic jam. They were going to be late again but his partner couldn’t care less, sipping at his bright purple drink while they waited in the baking sun. Kandomere sighs and puts on the sunglasses he’d stashed into the glove compartment.

“You should just ask her out already.” Montehugh says suddenly. Kandomere nearly breaks the expensive eyeglass case that’s still in his hands in half. “I mean your crush is super obvious Boss. It’s kind of cute to be honest.”

He almost gets out of the car to take a cab back to the office. Almost.

The next time Kandomere shows up at the flower shop he’s alone. It was supposed to be trivia night at the pub but Montehugh ditched him for his date and he’d somehow ended up here. The sky is blazing red and orange from the setting sun, golden light bouncing off rainbow petals in the giant display window like glittering jewels.

His human’s standing behind the counter again, packing away the last of her things into her worn work bag.  _His human._  That’s how he’s come to think of her.

_His._

There’s a human saying Montehugh liked to use ‘butterflies in his stomach’, Kandomere’s always thought it rather stupid but he feels it now, nervous fluttering right under his heart. He pushes the door open and the little bell at the entrance rings loudly in his ears. The girl behind the counter looks up, smiling when she sees him.

“No Monty today?”

“No.” His voice is rough, his throat feels like it’s been sandpapered to hell.

“Well we’re technically closed, but I can make an exception for one of my favourites. What would you like? Something for someone special?” She’s teasing him but the only thing he can focus on is  _my favourite._  Kandomere can feel his face heating up.

“Are you okay?” She’s got her hand on his forehead again. “Oh wow, you’re feeling kind of hot.”

It’s too much.

He takes her hand off of his forehead, cradling it in his own. “I…” Kandomere clears his throat.  _Oh hell._  “I wanted to ask you on date.”

The pretty flower shop girl blinks at him. “Right now?”

“Yes.” He answers before thinking.  _Fucking idiot._

She turns her hand around in his and he’s sure she’s going to rip it away and make things even more awkward than they already are.  _How the hell was he going to explain this to Montehugh?_

His pretty little human threads her fingers through his and beams up at him, smile alight in the gold orange glow of the setting sun. “Okay.”

“Okay?”  _Okay?_

She nods.

Okay.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feeling indulgent :)

It’s close to three in the morning when he finally manages to crawl into bed, suit jacket, tie, and all. The day’s scents follow him, clinging to his air with dirty little claws. Gunpowder and smoke and some cloying human cologne that one of his more annoying colleagues favoured. It’s late (early) and he’s too tired to wash them off. Exhaustion sits like concrete blocks between his shoulder blades, weighing heavy on his aching muscles, even taking his shoes off had been a struggle.

He settles for resting on her side of the bed (away from the door in case there’s ever an intruder (his choice). _(Blocking the window so the light from the sun wouldn’t pierce his too sensitive eyes first thing in the morning (her choice)).)_ Kandomere buries his face in his human’s pillow to block out the offensive smells. It’s warm.

He’s very nearly asleep but his ears still pick up the faint _shush, shush, shush_ of the faucet turning on and off, his skin still feels the silent air sweep across the room where the bathroom door opens and shuts. And then, _tap…tap…tap…_ slow, padded steps tiptoeing along the carpeted floor. The bed dips beside him; gentle hands smooth his hair back from his face, chasing the smoke away.

“Bad day?”

Kandomere grunts, keeping his eyes closed, pushing into the hand that’s carding through his hair. “Why are you up?”

“Pillow was lumpy,” she says, lifting one of his arms and tucking herself under it. “But this one’s perfect.”

He bites down a smile, closing his arms around his cotton-soft human to still her rabbit-squirming. Fingertips skim his face, mapping his features on their nightly walk across his skin, checking for bruises and cuts. They linger under his eyes where he knows dark stains sprawl like evening shadows.

“My poor elf,” she says, pressing a velvet kiss on to each eyelid. Kandomere sags boneless against the pillows, entirely unhelpful as his little human unbuttons his suit jacket and loosens his tie. “Up,” she breathes into his ear, tugging on his lapel, and he slumps forward resting his head in the crook of her neck so she can slip his coat off his shoulders. And then his vest, his tie, “Shirt or no shirt?” she asks; he can feel her eyelashes flutter against his skin.

“No shirt,” Kandomere grumbles, nestling into his human’s curled hair. She giggles.

“You always do this,” his human says. “Tell me the truth.”

“What truth?”

“Are you doing it for the attention?”

Kandomere laughs.

“Sí,”

“Oh _mi amor,”_ his human sighs, kneading lightly on the knot at the base of his skull. He breathes her in, sweet, honeyed breaths.

She’s wearing his shirt, he sees when he finally opens his eyes. Glossy curls caught in the rumpled collar, dark like midnight against the bone bright cloth.

Kandomere’s flower shop girl pouts at him. “Go to sleep,” she says, reaching up to cover his eyes with her palm. He catches her wrist, pulling her hand to his mouth instead, nipping at the apple of her palm with shark teeth.

“Give me a kiss first,” he demands, “a goodnight kiss.”

“It’s morning,” she huffs, pinching his chin. But she kisses him anyway pushing him on to his back so she can drape herself over his chest. “Rest now,” she tells him when he lets her pull away to breathe.

“Good morning, querido.”


End file.
